>> they gave you stead energy all morning long. >> gretchen: log on for the after the show show and we'll see you back here tomorrow. >> brian: see if maria gets along with jane. can't wait. bill: this is a big story now. good morning, everybody. fox news alert. twisters tearing through the midwest. >> oh, my god!. >> oh, my god. >> are you shooting that way? >> there is damage, guys. >> we are being littered with debris right now, nice. windows up. windows up. don't drop down. >> i got it. >> it is crossing the interstate right now. >> get in there!. >> we're in there right now. >> drop down, stop, stop, stop. drop it down!. bill: how did you spend your sunday afternoon. that's where those guys were. that region in the bull's-eye. that is our lead coverage. after a long weekend, bill hemmer, welcome to

"america's newsroom.". more of that coming up. martha: hey, i'm martha maccallum. we've got more pictures here. this is nature's fury caught from all angles. look at that. a massive storm system that spawned multiple tornados in iowa, kansas, oklahoma. one person is dead in all of this. boy, it could have been a lot more looking at the damage here. 21 people were injured. thousands of folks have woken up to homes that are severely damaged and in some cases that are just not there. bill: we find some of the worst damage in oklahoma where four confirmed twisters touched down late sunday afternoon, into the early evening hours. local officials described the scene as scoured earth. >> the wind blew the cellular door off. and then all of a sudden everything, just, seemed like it just went to pieces. >> everything i own. my, my pickup was sitting out there. my daughter's car.

everything's gone. bill: that poor woman. the town of shawnee, oklahoma, southeast of oklahoma city, took a direct hit from the twister you see on the screen there. an entire trailer park is no longer there. casey stiegel live on the ground in shawnee. what are you seeing this morning, casey. >> reporter: bill, good morning. we talk about the mobile home park. that is where the single fatality has been confirmed. it is not far from where i am. they're not letting us in. you don't have to far to see the damage. i want to show you around here. this is 30 miles southeast of oklahoma city. look at this. this is an oven that was once sitting in someone's kitchen, that was in a home actually about 30 feet that way. follow me around here. you can literally see people's lives scattered across fields. here's a couch from someone's living room. a washer, and then this here, this little chunk of debris here, this is a wall.

so all of this is, was sitting in a mobile home that was, as i said, about 30 feet or so back that way. the homeowner here tells me that they went through a tornado right back in 2010. so they hank cored the mobile home into a con receipt -- concrete foundation secured into the ground in hopes it would survive another twister and you can see, it did not. we don't know the strength of these storms just yet, whether this wasp an ef-3, an ef-4, the way the meterologist ifs rate these things. it goes all the way up to an ef-5. surveyors are on the ground and think will be comparing damage reports to what radar looked like at the time to try to figure out the strength of these. early indications from storm spotters on the ground and those mind-boggling pictures of twisters caught on tape, some people suggesting this

was perhaps an ef-4 that came through shawnee. if that's the case, we're talking wind of some 200 miles an hour. that is about the strength of a category 5 hurricane. but, it doesn't matter. i covered these last thursday in north texas and here we are in oklahoma. doesn't matter how many times you come out to scenes like this, when you see people's homes littered around, bill and martha, there is really no words to describe. bill: indeed. casey, what are they expecting today? because there's a forecast that suggests they could be in the cross-hairs yet again? >> reporter: things are not looking good. i talked to the national weather service out of norman, oklahoma. by the way, norman also got hit by tornados, south of oklahoma city. meteorologists there say we're looking at a very similar timeline again today. very strong storms predicted. storms capable of producing yet even more tornadoes are. around 3:00, 4:00 local time. so that would be 4:00 or

5:00 eastern. so you have these people that are now trying to pick up their lives from the whammy they got yesterday. now this exact same region, when you look at the map, it is almost the exact same swath that sunday the gun again this afternoon. and that of course is of great concern, not only to the forecasters but also to the people who, who really got smacked in the face with this yesterday, bill. bill: casey, thank you. we'll be in contact with you throughout the morning. casey stiegel, shawnee, oklahoma. what a scene it is there already. martha. martha: take a look at this. more incredible video of a funnel cloud from kansas. it was caught on video from a storm chaser. take a look at the size of this. that storm chaser will join us. he will tell us about his first-hand account of riding this one out in just a couple minutes from now. besides the size, these tornados are incredibly powerful. an ef-5, you heard casey stiegel talk about the rankings, the strongest out

there can have top winds up to 300 miles an hour. think of hurricane-force winds of 100 miles per hour. this is 300 miles an hour depending on insize of that funnel on the inside. they can leave a destruction 50 miles long. oklahoma averages 55 tornados over year with an average of 21 in the month of may. bill: we put together this graphic to get a better illustration of what is happening. this is way up in the atmosphere. this storm front is visible to the eye on so much video. you have rain and hail and that have fun nil cloud. this makes for a tornado. that cool, dry air from the left colliding with the warm, humid air from the right. that's when you start to get the enormous power that swirls in the middle. you see on so many of these, videotapes we see, the damage on the bottom, that is the debris field down here but also that up draft,

it is so pow -- powerful and so strong. casey is talking about the tornado that has the same force and impact of a category 5 hurricane. cool air from the left, warm air to from the right and power that turns its way through here. luckily in oklahoma they knew the storm was coming, and some alerts were sent out to look for something like this, when you see the video, some of these funnel clouds, martha, they're huge. they're on the horizon, they're big and they're powerful. and they are moving through here. we're coming up third week of may right now. normally you would see these starting in april but it has been a very quiet season until now. martha: doesn't matter to those folks, right, whose stuff is scattered all over the place. we'll keep checking in on this story and millions of people could be in harm's way as this storm starts to move east. meteorologist maria molina is tracking it from the fox extreme weather center. she joins us live with "what you need to know". that is coming up.

over the weekend the white house launched full out media blitz fighting back from controversies that have been hitting the white house. senior advisor, dan pfeiffer, there he is on all five of the sunday shows, he defended the obama administration. senior white house foreign affairs correspondent wendell goler is live from the white house with the latest on all of this. wendell, pfeiffer seemed to focus on the irs and targeting of tea party groups in much of these appearances over the course of the weekend. >> reporter: well he did, martha. he also defended the decision of white house counsel catherine rum bler not to tell the president when she learned it about last month that an inspector general report would show the irs improperly targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. phieffer says republicans would have been more outraged if mr. obama had known about the investigation and asked for information. >> here is the cardinal rule

when you deal with investigations like this. never interfere with an independent investigation. never give appearance of interfering with independent investigation. as treasury department said they never told anyone in the white house. >> reporter: phieffer called the tea party targeting inexcusable. he won't wait for the justice department to take investigation before he takes action again. martha: might be damned if you do, damned if you don't situation as he portrayed it. how are republicans responding to all of this, wendell? >> reporter: a range of outrage on the republican side as you might imagine. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell blames a culture of intimidation throughout the administration. rand paul says he can't believe one rogue agent started it because it seems too widespread. wisconsin congressman paul ryan said there will be investigation, probably more than that one. what we have you no is only an inspector general's audit. >> an audit is measure of behavior and what occurred. they didn't look at e-mails. they didn't look at intent.

they didn't look at who was in the chain of information. so none of that information has been acquired yet. that is what the ig is doing right now. that is what our congressional oversears are doing as well. >> reporter: ryan noted the targeting was going on during the last year's presidential race which he was involved as a republican vice-presidential candidate. he wants to know who knew what when and how high up in government did it go. martha? martha: no doubt he has a specific interest in that based on his background. wendell, thank you so much. see you later. bill: what do they call it on sunday when you do all five shows? hitting for the cycle? martha: incredible. great stuff on "fox news sunday". bill: sure was. as many questions there are answers yet again today. not only is the white house defending a irs official, she was actually promoted. what she is in charge of now and how that could affect obamacare. we'll fill you in on that. martha: she is convicted of stabbing her ex-boyfriend 20 seven times before slitting his throat and shooting him in the head. brutal crime no matter how

you look at it. we will find out today most likely whether or not jodi arias will live or die. plus this. >> that was it. >> boy, that thing is huge. bill: those voices are storm chasers. they're driving toward the storm, toward the tornado as many around them scrambled for shelter. we'll talk to one of them based on what they saw sunday. straight ahead. new honey bunches of oats greek yogurt and whole grain. here we go. honey cornflakes and chunks of greek yogurt. i'm tasting both the yogurt and the honey at the same time. i'm like digging this yogurt thing. i feel healthy.

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that's right for you. martha: well a big blog merger today. yahoo! buying tumbler for $1.1 billion as part of yahoo!'s effort to climb back to the top of the internet world. tumbler is an online forum ha that allows users to share blog posts and photos they like. they say tumblr will remain independently operately.

bill: the white house strongly defending the official in charge of tax scandal, not only was she fired or not fired, she was promoted, still has her job. former commissioner, sarah hall ingram will head the agency's health care office and will be responsible for enforcing obamacare. white house senior advisor dan five fer says there is no evidence she has done anything wrong. >> first it is important to note this individual was not named in the inspector general's report. no one suggested she did anything wrong yet. the acting commissioner will do a 30-day review. everyone who did anything wrong will be held accountable. before everyone in this town convicts this person in the court of public opinion with no evidence let's get the facts and make decisions after that. bill: erick erickson, editor of rednd a fox news contributor. welcome back to you. welcome to "america's newsroom." do you have a sense where this is going, eric? >> we're hearing leaks out of the ohio, cincinnati, office, someone in washington helped make this

call. there has to be a paper trail. i don't think this ends well for sarah ingram hall. i don't think it end well for the obama administration. bill: there is investigation now from the irs then. are you suggesting, pending the results of the investigation will she be able to run the role or play her role in the, enforcement of obamacare? >> you know, i think they probably need to suspend her with pay while this is being investigated. there is no hope that we can have confidence in the obamacare office give the office she was last in charge of picked and chose who to investigate and to ask them what the contents of their prayers were. bill: there will be a time for her to tell her story. we'll see how she explains all this. >> right. bill: what you talk about is a pattern within the administration. >> yes. bill: a pattern of what, erick. >> of not being held accountable. like "star trek", unnamed red shirt guy gets thrown on the bus while senior people who caused the program gets promoted. benghazi no one lost their

job. fast and furious, no senior person lost their job. now this. the senior people were involved. the white house gives them a pass. no wonder irs thought they had a license to do this, after president said democrats punish your enemies because they know though will get promoted. bill: last irs commissioner was he or she found at fault? >> no. think resigned. the president publicly demanded their resignation. they weren't even on the job. in fact this lady, sarah hall ingram, her successor lost his job. he was on the job two weeks. she got a promotion. she was in charge the whole time. promoting people in charge for whole time and asking resignations for people who haven't been there very long. bill: i come back to the point where this is headed? where does it end? where does it stop? what is your sense? >> we need a special prosecutor? bill: what would that do? >> get in to ask the hard questions without any bias. no one would think the white house was rigging it. get e-mails, get phone calls, get witnesses, figure out

what went on. paul ryan in the clip we played showed they haven't dug into the e-mails and back channel conversations yet. they need to start doing that. bill: sense of timeline, that would take six months tore for that or a year, possibly longer. >> right. this isn't about the administration per se. this is about the irs running out of control thinking it had license to ask people what their prayers were. this is bigger than the white house. this is the agency that is now going to oversee our health care as well. bill: speaking of the white house, senator rob portman apparently gave an interview with a group of reporters last week and he referred to, paraphrasing now, he said it is difficult to believe the president learned about this just recently, suggesting earlier in may or toward the end of april. because it has been in the news for about a year's time. what do you think of that? >> right. well we know now from press reports that the white house counsel was told earlier. question know that this has been going on for a while. seniors in the treasury department knew about it before they even denied it

before congress last year. if the president didn't really know about, we have to know what does the president do? we don't know where he was when benghazi happened. does the president preside? they need to answer the question. why was he asleep at the switch when all these things happened. bill: erick erickson in washington we find you. enjoy your time there we know you will find a few things to talk about. thank you. here's martha. martha: eggs, milk, i will take $590 million please. that was biggest winning powerball ticket in lottery history. who holds the ticket? we're live on easy street, folks. that's next. >> this is great. >> this is so exciting. like once in a lifetime. >> little town, big name now.

so...how'd it go? well, dad, i spent my childhood living with monks learning the art of dealmaking. you've mastered monkey-style kung fu? no. priceline is different now. you don't even have to bid. master hahn taught you all that? oh, and he says to say (translated from cantonese) "you still owe him five bucks." your accent needs a little work.

martha: somebody is down right filthy rich today and it is not me unfortunately. one person in a small city, zephyrhills, florida, hitting it big-time. $590 million in that jackpot. you heard it right. wtvt joins us now from zephyrhills, florida. have you heard anything about who the person is yet? >> reporter: no, not yet, martha. i got to tell you it is not me either. i don't think it is anybody else in our newsroom either. get this, 1 in 175 million people that is odds of winning. turns out one person, that one person walked into this person over here and bought the golden ticket, $590.5 million as he or she takes the lump sum they will walk away with about $223 million tax-free. let's put that in perspective here for a moment.

the zephyrhills city budget is $49 million. zephyrhills is 45 minutes northeast of tampa. it is a small city known for its water and skydiving. now it is home to the largest powerball winner in history, martha. martha: so is the grocery store sold that winning ticket get a cut? >> reporter: from what we understand they receive about $85,000 and that money will go right back into the general fund. typically for a story like this when you do the stores that sell the winning ticket, they divvy up to the employees. doesn't look like that will happen here. publix will keep the money and go back into their general fund. martha: boy, somebody, do you think they know? i wonder if they know that it is them? or the ticket is sitting in a coat pocket somewhere. >> reporter: that's right. we are hearing a couple of rumors that it's a 23-year-old woman that works at wal-mart. that is the lucky winner. martha: really? >> reporter: she called out sick yesterday. we're hearing from the mayor

of zephyrhills. there are a lot of rumors. we heard it was an employee here at publix. i truly don't think it's that. i talked to manager. he said that is not the case. maybe a 23-year-old woman works at wal-mart. maybe they will come forward today. martha: we'll get you back on when we find out who it is. it is not bill hemmer. >> reporter: sounds good. we'll see you. bill: she could buy wal-mart though. take a pretty good chunk out of that thing. we'll see you. full-court press from the white house. you are heard this firing back at criticism of the president. they are calling it offensive, white house is. reaction from a leading republican to that word coming up. martha: incredible pictures. look at this. mother nature at its worst, at its best, it is an unbelievable picture over the weekend. these dangerous storms. we'll ask a veteran storm chaser who shot the video and where is this going next? i'm phyllis and i have diabetic nerve pain.

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bill: all right. these severe weather warn, there are many already firing up in the midwest today, threatening the same areas already devastated by the weekend tornados. reports this morning of 17 different twisters on sunday stretching across five states as that storm moved from the northwest to the, southwest, rather, to the northeast from oklahoma to illinois. the down in oklahoma where one person is dead as a result. meteorologist maria molina live in the fox news weather

center. good morning there. >> good morning, bill. good to see you. that's right, we're talking extreme weather over the weekend all associated with a very slow moving storm system that will impact parts of midwest and plain states. not just again today but even as we head into your tuesday. by wednesday we're talking possible severe weather as we head into sections of the northeast. we have several days here to track the storm system. yesterday we saw about 24 reported tornados. that is according to the storm prediction center. one of them was confirmed, an ef-1 near wichita, kansas. estimated winds up to 110 miles per hour. but the other big story of course is very large hail. some reports of grapefruit-sized hail. you're talking about over four inches in diameter. that in itself can cause damage and strong damaging winds in excess of 60 miles an hour. more than 200 reports of very strong wind across this area. today as you mentioned a very similar threat anywhere from tex up into parts of the great lakes a very widespread area that could look at damaging wind gusts,

large hail and tornados. the greatest risk area is the area shaded in red. that is where we have moderate risk. parts of oklahoma where you see the images out of devastation we're talking another big chance today to see more severe storms that could produce tornados. parts of texas, parts of missouri and parts of arkansas you're also under that elevated risk. other big story because the storm is such a slow-mover. we're not just talking severe weather but flooding possible with thunderstorms that could dump several inches of rain with parts of oklahoma and wisconsin. the ground is already saturated from this weekend. heavy rains that we've seen out here. by tuesday, severe threat includes part of texas, arkansas up into the great lakes. again, bill, by wednesday look at this, cities like cleveland, pittsburgh, cincinnati, even buffalo, new york. they will have to keep an eye out for strong to severe thunderstorms. bill: there was a lost warning yesterday. >> yes there was. bill: why would that be? >> we knew these storms would be firing up

throughout the afternoon. we know that again today. we know the elevated risk where we showed you the red area, parts of oklahoma and parts of missouri. we saw the thunderstorms fire up. we saw rotation with them. we knew touchdown was imminent. storm spotters saw the tornado on the ground and were able to get the word out. bill: probably saved lives. >> probably did. bill: talk to you next hour. >> thank you,. martha: as maria was just talking about severe weather threats are in place today in parts of kansas after a string of tornados over the weekend. check out this video in kansas. look at the funnel clouds and look at those images. that looks like the things you see in outer space, right? the beginning of a star. that is a tornado as it touched down in rozel. it level homes there. rob here, shot the video. he joins me. rob, thanks for being with us. you had some day yesterday, huh? >> yeah, this weekend has been a little busy.

martha: take us through it. because we have three different pieces of video here. we want to start rolling those and have you sort of, this first one is in kansas. take us through this. >> okay. this actually, this might be the viola one. this is the first tornado we saw touch down west of wichita, yes. it developed west of wichita. moved into the area. rapidly rotating clouds and then this tornado briefly touched down and was replace ad few minutes later by some larger tornados. martha: wow!. we have another piece of your video coming up here because you shot so much yesterday and we also saw that some of it, this one says viola, kansas. talk to me about the formation of this. what it felt like around it in terms of pressure. we heard these were all rain-wrapped yesterday. what was that like? >> specifically on the ones near wichita, it was

humid and very muggy. the atmosphere felt charged. with the actual storm itself being so explosive and with the circulations coming quickly embedded in rain, it was a very dangerous situation for not just the residents but also anyone out there. law enfor -- enforcement, fire, storm chasers, spotters, a dangerous environment especially when you get to a big metropolitan area like wichita where traffic can be impacted too. martha: this one, i don't know if you can see the screen, it has a yellow, unbelievable picture. tell me exactly where you were when you shot this? >> this is the rozel, kansas, tornado. this was pretty close, maybe half a mile, a little closer to this tornado. maybe a quarter of a mile away from it. the yellow tint it, was really close to sundown so it was picking up the scattered light in the atmosphere and giving that yellow and orange tint. martha: i know you guys like

to do this and what you like to do but were you scared? >> the rozelle tornado, this was, a right after this video we it cut, okay, we need to move. because it actually stopped a little bit and turned a little bit and we realized it was coming right for us. we had to get out of the way quickly. the rozelle one wasn't too bad. the wichita, the storms southwest of wichita, it was getting a little hairy for a while. that was a very nasty storm. especially when you get anything rain wrapped you can't see what is happening around you. you can see the rozelle tornado. you can see where it is going. the wichita one there was multiple circulations, there was rain anywhere. very dangerous situation for anyone in the path. martha: they say we may get more today. where are you headed next? >> we're headed home today. we had a short little excursion this weekend, just saturday and sunday. we'll be missing all the storms today. >> rob, thank you for giving us access to see these pictures.

they're incredible. and it is a dangerous situation which is very clear and we're going to keep everybody posted on those developments. rob, thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. bill: seems like we get more and more of them every year but the work they do out there, not only is it dangerous but they're facing things like this. if you look to the right, i don't think you normally see this, but looks like the sun is out. martha: that's what he --. bill: despite the enormous cloud moving toward you, you see the force and power that is contained in this spinning motion. martha: getting all the images out there hopefully helps to just speed that pool of information that allows people to get out of the way and to see the power of these storms and get a sense for what is in their area. hopefully that keeps people safe. bill: the other thing in their favor, it was day time hours. martha: yeah. bill: sometimes, when they strike in the middle of it into a lot of people don't get warning they need. martha: terrifying. bill: in this case, most, not all but most did. martha: that woman, it was so sad, lost so much. bill: listen, big forecast out there again today.

we won't leave it and we'll find out where it moves throughout tuesday and wednesday as well. what a story this was. a massive commuter train collision shutting down one of the busiest tracks in the country. when tens of thousands of americans are still being affected today because of it. martha: the white house says it is flat-out offended the way republicans are handling the recent scandals. a top republican senator joins us in moment. he has a response. >> the assertion from republicans somehow the president allowed this to happen didn't take action is offensive. there is no evidence to support it.

martha: boy, it was a nightmare commute on friday and it is shaping up to be very tough on a busy travel corridor this morning and that follows the train derailment that happened in connecticut in the rush hour friday evening. as for plans to get this back up and running, the state's governor saying driving might not be such a good idea. >> let me put this in perspective. there are 30,000 daily commuters whose trips will be disrupted because of this accident. if all of those were to get on the highway, single occupancy cars, we would literally have a parking lot. martha: bus from connecticut is the message there or any other way you could find. that crash injured 72 people. one train derailed and hit another oncoming train going

70 miles per hour. it happened during the rush hour as i said. connecticut suburbs north of new york city. one train was on its way to grand central in new york city. boy, 72 injuries. that is awful. but this could have been a lot worse. this was as at the height of that commute. so many people were onboard but terribly frightening. bill: i had a friend on a train that was behind this collision. they were diverted to another station. they all caught taxis went home. when they got home 7:00 tonight on friday they found out what happened in front of them. remarkable stuff there, from friday evening there. now we have this from and morning a lot to talk about today because the white house is pushing back criticism of the president's leadership. senior advisor dan pfeiffer appearing on all five talk shows. the full ginsberg he tells us. exploiting the ap story and benghazi controversy for political purposes.

he calls it offensive. >> no, i do not. we've seen this playbook from the republicans before. what they want to do when lacking a positive agenda try to drag washington into a swamp of partisan fishing expeditions and trumped up hearings and false allegations. we'll not let that happen. president has things to do for. bill: good morning to you, roy blunt and thank you for your time. >> good morning,ing bill. bill: i hope you're doing well. he calls it offensive . what do you say? >> well, i also heard him say trumpedded hearings. i don't know what is trumped up about this. it is clear facts are out there. the irs did things that nobody should in their right mind defend. it is also clear from benghazi where at the time that happened i was on the senate intelligence committee, that the information was never allowed to many could out that should have come out. i think the real challenge here for republicans frankly is to, be patient and

methodical when you're outraged. it is hard to do when you're outraged but the right thing to do here is let the facts come out. don't try to prejudge what they are. it is more and more obvious to me that we're going to find out that more people knew about the irs than have admitted so far that they knew about it and people are going to be, upset when that happens and they should be upset. the, the irs is scariest of all federal government agencies to the average american. and they don't like thinking that nobody's running the irs. you know in the first four years of the obama administration everything was george bush's fault. now apparently everything is nobody's fault because nobody is taking responsibility for the government anymore. bill: your comment about republicans. do you think on the senate and house side so far they have done that, they have stuck to, what you believe is a cautious approach to find the facts? >> well, i think that's happening and i think the house hearings will andould go .

i hope that chairman baucus, the democrat chairman of the finance committee in the senate and others who have said there should be senate hearings move forward with that. i think this is a moment when we should take our time, we should be have your facts straight, and, see where that leads us. you should, if nobody is running the irs, somebody needs to. if nobody is responsible for talking points that try to explain the death of americans overseas somebody needs to be responsible for that and let's see what lessons need to be learned here. you will not know what lessons need to be learned until you find out what really happened. bill: in your first answer, sir, you referred to more people knowing about there irs scandal. how many more people and how high up? >> well, i don't know i guess i would be violating my own advice if i said how many more people, how high up. but it is hard for me to believe that the irs commissioner knew about this a year ago and didn't tell anybody?

it's hard for me to believe that the white house counsel knew about this a month ago and didn't tell the chief of staff? if that's the case, you don't have much of a counsel if your counsel is not telling you something this significant and then, chief of staff, if he knew, did he tell the president? maybe, maybe not. somebody has to be responsible, bill, for running the government and that is what people expect. they don't expect a continued second term of excuses. we need a second term not of defending everything that the government does but making everything the government does better. bill: two more precise, questions, sir. mr. pfeiffer on sunday repeatedly said that the president had learned about this matter with the irs only a few weeks ago. your colleague, senator rob portman from ohio, apparently gave an interview with several reporters last week and he suggested it was impossible for the president not to know about this much earlier because there were news reports about it. as long as a year ago. what is your reaction to that?

>> well there were news reports out there. there was, the terms of the irs commissioner, one of the reasons i said last tuesday at our leadership press conference he needed to be removed is he clearly knew about it and didn't, wouldn't give the right answer to a ways and means committee, to three different members of congress who wrote letters. he writes letters back and basically leads everybody to believe this isn't happening. if the president didn't know about it, i think the president needs to find out why he didn't know about it and be sure that that never happens again. these are, these issues are too big for the president not to know about. is, this is not on benghazi. the president said it was a sideshow. it is not a sideshow at all when we find out now that the facts are not what the american people and the congress was told they were. and, it does make a difference in spite of mrs. clinton's comment that, what difference does it make? it makes a big different ren

if you don't know why these things happened so they couldn't happen again. could we save americans in north africa within 10 hours if we needed to? i would hope so. bill: one more question. dan pfeiffer says republicans owe susan rice a apology suggesting she misled the country after she appeared on the all five talk shows of at tax on benghazi. do republicans owe susan rice a apology. >> i don't know what the answer to that is, but more appears to me she wasn't involved in the discussion that led up to the points, the talking points. she was given. so why would you send somebody out there who has a important title but really doesn't have the information that they need to represent the administration and the country to at a critical moment like that? she may very well have been one of the victims of the information she was given. bill: roy blunt, thank you, senator from missouri. thank you for your time.

a lot to go through and we chalmette thodally throughout the week. thank you, senator. martha. martha: deadly twisters ripping through america's heartland from iowa to oklahoma, to kansas. much more could be on the way, folks. we're live on the ground in one of the hardest hit areas and where this thing may be headed now. bill: jodi arias gets a chance to speak yet again before a jury decides whether she lives or dies. >> i am a police officer and some of these photos are more gruesome than i have ever seen in my 11 years of law enforcement. our minds are permanently stained. you hurt my feelings, todd. i did? when visa signature asked everybody what upgraded experiences really mattered... you suggested luxury car service instd of "strength training with patrick willis." come on todd! flap them chicken wings. [ grunts ] well, i travel a lot and umm...

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bill: there were almost 60 people injured after a car crashes into a crowd during a parade in a small virginia town. three people were flown by helicopter to a nearby

hospital but many were treated right at scene. multiple witnesses say the driver was an elderly man. investigators say he might have suffered a medical emergency before that accident. damascus, virginia. martha: jodi arias will get a chance today to speak to the jury that convicted her of murder before they decide if she should live or die. big day today in this case. this comes after the sister of travis alexander, the man that arias killed, broke down in tears, describing the painful impact of her brother's death. >> losing travis is completely destroyed the overall health of our family. travis was our strength, our constant beacon of hope. his giving spirit, his determination, for accomplishments and his

endless strength, as a foundation of our family has been taken from us. and never can be replaced. martha: would you. very emotional testimony there. adam housley joins us live in los angeles with the latest on this today. hi, adam. >> reporter: yeah, martha. quite a day on thursday. i mean, ended half day. so didn't go a full court day on thursday. why today is expected to go the entire day. we heard from travis's sister there and also one much his brothers. they got emotional when they talked about travis the being the blue of the family and kept everybody together. you heard from his sister. everybody got meggsal. jodi arias cried. many brothers and sisters and courtroom, listening in the front row and listening to brutal testimony and allegations. they had their chance to speak about their brother and why they believe that jodi arias deserved the death penalty. in fact at one point the sister they had not all been together, eight brothers have not been together since

travis died because they don't want to sit at a table with an empty chair. >> travis used to write out his day on a flash card. the last one he wrote said to call steven. i never got that call. >> reporter: that was steven alexander, travis's brother talking about the loss of his brother. man, it was incredibly emotional last week, martha. martha: boy, it certainly was. can't imagine what it was like in there. it is hard to watch from here. adam, what do we expect in this phase now? the defense is trying to save jodi arias's life. what's next? >> reporter: it is going to be interesting because we thought they might call alyce laviolette, one of the defense witnesses that thought jodi arias was abused by travis alexander. that was a thought. now that has gone away. theory we'll hear from jodi

arias one of her ex-boyfriends. one of her friend and jodi arias herself. that will be big interest here. we don't know. she said in interview with one of the local fox stations she wanted to die rather than sit in prison rest of her life, martha. we don't know if that what she will do on the stand. no one knows what she will do. it will be very interesting courtroom drama. martha: that will be interesting. adam. we'll be watching. bill: white house defending itself on all five sunday talk shows over the weekend of the did this stop the bleeding we asked today? martha: dramatic video of those tornados. we're live on the ground. we'll be back with more "america's newsroom" after this. >> geyerry? >> yes. >> right there.

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martha: anxious eyes on the skies right now. the heartland today could be in for another round of the severe weather we saw over the weekend. >> that thing is huge. >> we are getting rid with rain here soon. martha: it's unbelievable. that was without of wichita, can cast, part of twisters that pounded the midwest and the plains. good morning, welcome to this morning apartment's newsroom. i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer.

there are millions on the look out for more severe weather that could spawn more tornadoes. some of the worst damage in oklahoma, a half toz twisters in that state alone kill at least one person and injuring 20 others. >> garrett teny is live in kansas city, missouri, two miles south of joplin, which has seen so many testify station. two years a deadly tornado struck. what kind of destruction are people dealing with there this morning? >> reporter: here in kansas city we are kind of in the line of fire where storms are expected to come through duty today. west of here in wichita, kansas you saw some of the video you saw two or three tornadoes hit here yesterday. 22 plots were damaged. surprisingly though, they call it remarkable that in this hatch mile wide tornado that was on the ground for four and a half miles not a single person was injured, not a single life was

lost. call that remarkable again. they said the words damage they had was actually from the hail. about a golf-ball size hail that pummeled the city tearing through walls on the home. there is a man he said whose car he described it as a golf ball itself after all of the divets that it had from being pummeled by the hail throughout the afternoon and evening last night. 10,000 people were without power. this morning that number is down to about a thousand. so which ta ar which a ta are clear of the severe weather today. we expect more of it in kansas city. martha: what are they saying about today, garrett? >> reporter: yeah, today they are saying wichata is clear. through much of the midwest the severe weather threats are saying the hail, rain, tornadoes are likely throughout today. martha. martha: garrett teny thank you so much. we'll see you later.

bill: folks in missouri understandably on edge, but joplin on that finds. the most powerful tornado, an ef5 striking that city of 50,000 on may 22nd, 2011. winds topping 200 miles an hour. homes were destroyed, schools and a major hospital. of of the town was left unrecognizable. the joplin twister going down in history books as the single deadliest tornado since recordkeeping started in 1950. hundreds lost their lives that day in joplin. martha: we find incredible stories of survival. a couple in kansas say they are lucky to be alive after the trailer they were in actually flipped over and as scary as that sounds officials say that the safest place to be is always indoors. watch this. >> the wind just came up all of a sudden and the rv started

shaking, this rv over here. the window blew in, broke in, and other than that -- then it was over real quick. i'm thank null that we weren't hurt more than we were, our vehicle. >> it was late at night. people couldn't see, a lot of people stayed off the roads, which is good, and people just need to remember in storms you never know what is going to happen especially when you can't see what is going on. the best place to be is inside and be safe. martha: fire fighters were able to rescue the couple after winds of 75 miles an hour flipped their trailer over end on end. they were treated for only minor injuries. somebody was watching over that couple, right. bill: sure with were, that's right. that couple considers themselves lucky to be alive. there are some people like our next guest, that hear about the 75-mile an hour winds and drive straight into the eye of the storm like this. >> oh, my, god. oh, my god, that's damage. >> that's damage. >> i'm all over it. >> there is damage, guys. >> we are being little erred

with debris right now, guys. watch out guys, windows up. windows up. >> don't drop down. >> windows up. >> it is crossing the interstate right now. >> we're in it right now. >> drop it down, stop, stop, stop. >> one of of the voices inside that vehicle is that of read t immer. a storm chaser. can you hear me okay? >> i can hear you fine. >> which voice was yours inside that vehicle? >> there were a couple of loud voices in there. there were jim's and mine and we were definitely at a high level of volume. it was intense, we were going in for intercepts. bill: where were you and how far away with you from the funnel cloud we seep on the screen? >> when it first formed right there that was near edm u.n. d crossing i35. it dodged a bullet.

there is damage, but that tornado continued do intensify as it moved east, grew in size. it was a quarter mile wide, then a half mile wide, then even wider as it headed towards wel wellst to on. we saw severe damage and went house to house and pulled people out. as you saw we were approaching you the saw the tree get lifted straight up at it must have been 200 miles an hour. that shows that the updraft wind can be equally as damaging as the horizontal wind. that's why we have the equipment in our vehicles to measure the wind inside. bill: you said you were inside the tornado, what did it feel like. >> we have vehicles to withstand the wind. we have anchors that go into the ground, the whole vehicle is vibrating back and forth. there are miniature tornado

going around and they were going around us behind us, in front of us and above us as a massive cone tornado. we got hit with one of those suckses and the whole vehicle was vibrating. it's scary. instincts tell you to tkpweplt out of there, but you trust the engineering of the vehicle to keep you safe and see how strong the wind speed get on the the ground. bill: is there ever a moment where you say we should get out of here? >> every single time there is that voice in the back of the head that says that but we trust in the engineering of the vehicle. i've been doing this for 15 years, getting close to tornadoes. our vehicle weighs 10,000 pounds. we were streaming the vehicle to channel 4 in oklahoma city the whole entire time to keep people advised of the storms. then we went east and that with us a very violent tornado. aoeufpt terrible to hear of any loss of life. it's a miracle that only one person lost their life from that damage because the destruction

was devastating. we saw vehicles flipped over on the side of the road over where. bill: is there mostly farmland or are there many structures where you were at that point? >> right here this is mostly farmland. just east of here is a town and shawnee is a relatively pop a littled area, and that area sustained significant damage on the west side of town. to the south there was satisfactory sraoefr structura severe aerial damage. that was a very strong tornado that was a half mile wide at least. that one crossed i40 one of the main east west roads there and we saw trailers flip, we heard reports of people ejected from their vehicles and it could have been a much worse situation. today it looks like more strong tornado potential in oklahoma once again. we'll be out there with our three armored vehicles trying to relay reports to the weather service and kfor in oklahoma and

also do our research. that's why we built the vehicles to understand the dynamics of the storm. bill: thank you for sharing your story with us. be saeufl. skwraop fox news aler martha: twin car bombings in the russian republic of dagestan wounded people. it went off outside of a court building in the capitol. this region of russia is one on the radar of everyone in this country because it is the home of the suspect's parents in last month's boston marathon bombings. we know tha know that tamerlan sent quite a bit of time in that place. we'll see if we can get to the bottom of the story. bill: nuclear north korea is said to be launching two short-range missiles of some

type for a third straight day. the missiles landing in the waters off the country's east coast, south korean officials analyzing whether the projectiles were missiles or rockets fired from a large caliber gun the north may be developing. details on this when we get them here. martha: more on the deadly twisters pounding the heartland. that is shaun here. the yes right n where and when will people need to be on the look out for the next one. severe weather coming today. martha. bill: a surprising answer on benghazi. a senior white house adviser talking about questions on the president's whereabouts on the night of september 11th irrelevant. why would that be? martha: a sightseeing tour tourpbs tragic. new hot air balloons collide. what investigators believe caused that.

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after a firefighter goes missing in a burning dallas apartment building. a rescuer wa rescue two dozen apartments w-rp destroyed. no one who lived in that building was injured. more on this as we get it. dallas, texas martha: this is breaking news this morning. there is a new report from "the washington post" that fox news chief washington correspondent james rosen was investigated by the justice department in its effort to find a leak that they believed was occurring in the state department. and this time the doj was reportedly keeping track of a lot more than just phone records as we heard about so much in the ap story. obviously we are looking into this this morning. brit hume joins me now fox news senior political analyst. what is your take on what we know when this so far?

>> reporter: this was a leak investigation and it had to to with stories that the post reports that our colleague james rosen did back in 2009 and it had to do with north korea, information that the government claims came from a state department official. and the activity that is described in this story is the normal activity, this is what journalists do, journalists go to government officials and try to get them to tell them things. now, and the government sometimes investigates to try to find out which official told someone something they weren't supposed to. all that is perfectly normal. what is unusual in this case, martha, is that the investigation spilled over into a search through according to the story james rose repb, our colleague and friend's personal emails. and in order to do that, martha. justice department went to a judge to get a subpoena for that, and the subpoena was issued according to the story because the justice department

was alleging that the reporter in question, our colleague james, had engaged possibly in a conspiracy are, a criminal conspiracy, which means, martha, that the obama-holder justice department is now prepared to treat the ordinary news gathering activities of reporters trying to seek information from government officials as a possible crime. that is -- i'm not saying it's unprecedented because i can't -- i haven't researched this. but i can't think of a case in which that's ever happened before, and it kind of takes the hole ap thing and casts a new light on that of the attitude of this justice department toward the news tpwat erring activities of first amendment protected organizations. martha: it sure does. the investigator on this from the fbi is quoted as saying that they are considering our friend and colleague james rosen as a possible aider, a better and coconspirator for covering a story about north korea, saying basically that north korea was considering doing some nuclear tests as a result of u.n.

sanctions, that was the gist of the story that was being covered here. now, in order to get this information, according to this report in "the washington post" today they went to phone records, they went to the security badge analysis to test, you know, when james and this person steven jim woo kim that worked at the state department, comings and goings with security badges and got a search warrant for personal emails in this. obviously you look at this in the context of the ap story, and i guess everybody when we read that ap story thought, gee, where else does this go? how much bigger is this than just ap? maybe we're learning that in morning. >> perhaps we are, what i would say about those things, you know, you wear a security badge and you go in another state department it keeps a record of that, that is not uncommon, that is true of buildings both public and private around the country where they have such badges. that is not unusual. if they wanted to look at those records i don't think there is any reason they shouldn't be able to do that. it does concern you a little bit if help are tracking reporters'

movements but they probably had a right to do this. where this crows it seems to me a clear and bright-line is when they subpoenaed the phone records on the pretext, i would call it a pretext, even indeed a pretense that this activity was criminal. that places this administration in the position of saying that normal news gathering activities of journalists are possibly criminal, or are criminal. that is a little chilling. martha: it is chilling. and you look at the reason that they were looking into the state department official because he attended a briefing that i think about 585 people were at and then shortly after that the -- 58 a 5 people wer 585 people were out. and shortly after that the story came out. you can understand why they would be looking at the state department official. the question is why would they go further and that. you think about how passionately the president feels about freedom of the press, that's something we've heard. it raises questions about thoughts versus actions, words versus deeds and how the

administration actually behaves when it comes to these issues. >> reporter: exactly, martha. interesting that the president has now come out and talked about, maybe we ought to have a shield law to protect journalists. in other words he's saying we need a shield law to protect journalists from us, which is a peculiar position for a president of the united states to put himself in and his administration. martha: obviously we are just sort of tapping into the top of this story, and beginning to understand it. but one of the questions that come up is notification. because the ap is very outraged that they weren't notified. they say that this investigation into the ap was overbroad and the standard as i understand it is that if there is a specific thing that you think is a threat to the american people that would give you the right to go in for a search warrant and to do that without notifying the people involved. do we have any idea where we stand on that issue? >> reporter: well we don't know. the facts here. there is a factual question with regard to the ap story which is important, which is that the ap is saying, look, we went to the

administration, we had the story, and we said, we are planning to go with this. and they said please hold off because you'll blow the source and the whole thing, so they held off for a number of days. and then the administration said, you know, they said how bad? they said we are going to announce it on tuesday or something, so please hold off and let us announce it first. if they are prepared to announce it the announcement of the the the same thing ap was reporting would have the same effect. that does not mean that the ap getting the information isn't something that would trouble the administration. if this is something they were eventually going to announce themselves it takes the wind out of the sales of the argument that says this was a vital national a security secret that had to be protected and a very severe leak as eric holder claimed one of the worst he'd ever seen. there are some factual questions that need to be resolved here as to exactly what really was going on and what the actual threat to national security was. look, it's very clear martha that the government has a right and even a duty to investigate

leaks on their side of the divide. where you begin to get into trouble so many matters is when they try to get on the other side of the divide where you have constitutionally protected activities of the press being the subpoena subject of subpoenas sweeping emails and phone records being looked into. martha: we will continue to look into it. thank you so much. bill: what the white house is saying about president obama's whereabouts on the night of the benghazi terror attack and what we are learning now. we'll play that for you. martha: tea party groups are now gearing up for legal action when it comes to this i.r.s. issue for the acknowledged targeting of conservative groups seeking tax exempt status. that is coming up. >> is this still america? is this government so drunk on power that it would turn its full force, its full might to harass and intimidate and

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>> i don't remember what room the president was in on that night. that is a largely irrelevant fact. the point is -- the question is the premise of your question is that somehow there was something that could have been done differently. okay that would have changed the outcome here. the accountability review board has looked at this. people have looked at it, it's a horrible tragedy what happened and we have to make sure it doesn't happen again. bill: that was chris wallace with a white house senior adviser dan pfeiffer over the weekend with the question-and-answer about the whereabouts of the president on 9/11.

kt mcfarland with me in studio. good morning to you. the question is a largely irrelevant fact. what do you think of that? >> that is president crucial question, because what the president's involvement is, where he was giving his direction that night makes all the difference in the world as to whether there could have been a rescue mission. the president, by saying to the sec secretary of defense and the chairman of the joints chief of staff in the 5:00 meeting that afternoon says do what you have to do you guys handle it. when the president said that he was closing the door to any rescue mission. they don't commit u.s. troops abroad or in to another country unless they have the direct say so and authorization of the president. bill: why don't we know about his whereabouts thousand. >> i think that's what they are trying to cover up because you don't know what happened. bill: what would be offensive about where he was involved. >> when i talked to my old boss he said any administration we have been part of within minutes, within 15 minutes there would have been a white house situation working group dealing with that asian as it was ongoing. the problem with the benghazi

attack they say now, well we would have had a rescue mission it wouldn't have worked, they wouldn't have got even there in time. when the president was briefed nobody knew was it a kidnap mission, a hostage taking miss or an attack that would result in further harm. bill: this history about hillary clinton, bya because you asked, does anyone know where the person in charge at the department of state was not interviewed by the arb, that is the terrible review board. the person in charge would be hillary clinton who made that decision and what was the reasoning? >> the review board was given this much of a window to look at. the whole issue is this. they were just given a very narrow segment, which is what happened before, why was there not adequate security provided? we all know that it was a screw up. what do they conclude? there wasn't enough security provided. what they were not in tasked to look at is what happened during the attack and why no rescue mission and what happened after the attack and why have we not gone and rounded up the people who are selfproclaimed bragging

about this. bill: one of the men you'll hear from a moment. this was hillary clinton on friday september 14th when the bodies of the diseased were returned to andrews air force base. >> we've seen the heavy assault on our post in benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. we've seen rage and violence directed at american embassies over an awful internet video that we had nothing to do with. bill: now when we look back at that, on that 14th of september, that was the day the talking points are being massaged. fast forward to about three weeks ago ambassado who did the internal review of the state department said we knew where the responsibility rested, she had already stated on a number of occasions she accepted as a result of her job the full responsibility. that was on cbs' face the nation when he was asked as to why they did not that you can to her. what do you think of that answer? >> i think it's a bad answer,

accept responsibility but nor accountability. again, who has been held responsible? somebody says, oh i was responsible but yet there is no punishment, there is no accountability taken, no review of what did you do wrong. i think that is a fake accepting of responsibility, and when secretary pickering who is a very well respected man when he came out and said we looked at it we didn't really find any problems they weren't looking at the right thing. bill it's like you go to the dent *eups you get ist and you come out of the office and say i'm a perfect health, your teeth might be but who knows about the rest of you. bill: you can follow me on twitter at bill hemmer. martha: a look at the destruction from the deadly tornadoes that ripped through parts of the midwest over the weekend. we'll speak with one lawmaker who survived those twisters in a safe room with his wife and his two little boys. bill: also, martha for all the students and parents about to get into a lot of debt over

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martha: fox news alert as deadly

tornadoes ripped through the midwest an entire communities were destroyed in the middle of the night. you can see the debris shooting off of that tornado. unbelievable pictures we've got today. our next guest toured the destruction from a twister that he himself survived after spending a harrowing night in a safe room with his wife and his children. joining me now by phone oklahoma state representative randy graw. tell me about where you were and what your family did to take action during all of this? >> certainly. i live in edmund, which is a community north of oklahoma city, and i'd say that the local media did a great job keeping everyone informed about the track of this tornado. we knew it was coming to our area. we couldn't really see it, though because it had rain wrapped around it. we started to get into the safe room, i looked out the window this in front of my house and could actually see it coming down my street, you could see the debris swirling and of

course we got in and shut the door just befor went out and you heard the debris starting to hit the house. so certainly not something that you expect to see coming down your street but we are thankful that everyone is safe and accounted for. we do know there are parts of oklahoma where they are are still looking for some people. we know there is at least one confirmed fatality. our thoughts and prayers go out to the community. martha: absolutely. they sure do. it's a tough day for those folks. is your safe room in the basement? what is your families reaction? have you ever had to go down there before and use it? >> we have an above-ground safe room which is like a reinforced closet. in oklahoma you typically have shelters. they may be in the garage, they may be in the backyard buried underground. not everybody has a basement. but most people are prepared they have a place like an interior bathroom or somewhere where they know to go. and the emergency management

personnel as well as our local media does a great job of preparing people, you know, mentally and physically for these types of events. we have never had to go into the safe room like this before. i have young children, five years old, and 18 months, and so certainly they were confused, but they did great, and were champs and everybody is just fine. martha: oh, that must have been carry for them and for all of you. we are looking at the pictures with debris flying around not far from where you are. thank you so much for being with us. we are glad you are okay. as you point out we are thinking about those who are not and those who are still missing. thank you, sir, take care. >> thank you, martha. bill: based on ideology, you didn't mention targeting based on buzzwords like tea party or patriots or 9-12. you knew that but you did not mention this in the committee. do you not think that is a very complete answer? >> i answered the question truthfully. bill: one of the questions on the i.r.s. scandal.

another hearing is on the senate side this he can with. dozens of tea party groups targeted might sue the i.r.s. jordan sekulow is with us. the executive director of one of the tea party groups joins us from his home state of ohio. good morning to both of you gentlemen. tom i want to start with you. i think frankly you found out a lot in the last four days that you were probably looking at in the past two years. when you first filed what were you trying to do, tom? >> when we first filed we just were trying to handle the money that you have to handle for bus trips to washington. you know, you put on a public event you've got, you know, money that you've got to handle for refreshments and security and things like that. it wasn't any kind of big business, we were trying to do the proper thing. in order to get insurance, nor instance which is critical you've got to be incorporated somehow. we were trying to figure out how could we incorporate.

bill: were you granted status or delayed or what happened? >> thanks to aclj we were granted and it only took two and a half years. bill: two and a half years? >> yeah we started june, 2010. bill: june of 2010 you were granted status, what in the fall of 2012. >> december 7th, 2012, a month and a day after the election. bill: what do you think about what you're learning now? >> you know, i really thought, and jordan can tell you because we've worked closely together over the last year at least, i really thought i knew how broad and deep this was because i had shared a lot of experiences with the tea parties around the country. i've got to tell you i was shocked on friday. i was really rocked when the illinois congressman brought out the letter from the i.r.s. to the coalition for life in iowa and said the i.r.s. asked him in writing to tell us what your members pray for. that takes it to a different level for me, and i hope it takes it to a different level

for all americans because that is a level we don't want to go to. bill: one more question for you before i get to jordan. if you were delayed two and a half years, what was the effect on you and the group that you were trying to put together? it had a lot of effect. it hurt your fundraising because your status was uncertain. it took hours, hundreds of hours away from my ability to lead our organization, so it hampered our efforts. and i really think that was the purpose of this. it had nothing to do with our tax status, nothing to do with electioneering, it had to do with the 2012 election. >> skwroerjordan sekulow, you represent many groups including tamme's. i have a note that you are going to sue the i.r.s. >> we are going to sue the i.r.s., some groups, some groups approved well over the normal period, the reasonable time period, and we still have ten clients who are yet to be approved, some who filed in the end of 2009 that are still

waiting, bill. then you've got groups like toms who missed two election cycles and they were trying to get insurance for buses and part of tom's story is that they went for 501c 4-rbgs sta4 status because they were referred to that. they were okay with paying taxes to protect the members on the buses. they were shutout, it's called viewpoint discriminion. we are planning on bringing lawsuits here representing groups like tom's organization, others from across the country, about 17 groups so far are ready to sue but we are working with more and signing those back up who bee did represent. bill: we will see where the suit goes. tom, how does that make you feel? is that compensation for you now? >> well, you know, it's another step, it's an important step and i want to reach out to the tea party leaders and also other conservative group leaders watching this program. you need to step forward now. there is going to be not 17 or 27, there is going to be hundreds if not a thousand groups involved with this. and so i see my role now as

saying to you, i stood up with our group, you need to step up now, because this is an important constitutional issue. bill: tom, thank up for your time. jordan thanks to you as well. we'll see where this all goes. martha: with the cost of higher education more than 1,000 percent of what they were a few decades ago, unbelievable inflation in college education. is it still worth it to go to college? good question. that is next. come here, boy.

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martha: for all the money that it cost to go to college, and it costs a lot is it still really worth it? look at this. stew department loan debt in 2012 was a staggering $966 billion. and in just the first three months of this year borrowers have already defaulted on 3.5 billion. the cost of college is up, look at this. 1,120% in the last 30 years. you're not going to find that kind of inflation pretty much anywhere else in the market. our next guest has written a book on the issue, written a lot of books. william bennett is former secretary of education and author of the new book, one of his many great books and this one is called "is college worth it? " good to have you here.

>> thank you, martha. martha: as somebody who is going to do this a year and a half from now, what did you find, is college worth it? >> it all depend. for some people it is about a third to 40% we think, for most people it may not be, probably is not. look, if you get into the colorado school of miness and you're interested in petroleum engineering you should go. if you're interested in stanford you should go. you need to do a careful analysis. what is the return? how much do i have to pay to this institution. what will i owe when i get out. what is the job market for what i'm going to study when i get out. half the class of 2011 is unemployed or way under employed. the jobs coming in the next five or six years many of them will require mor more than a high school 4 diploma but less than a college degree and they are good paying jobs. martha: most 17 years old don't know what they want to do. if you're very spewant to go to, more power to you, that is wonderful.

don't, if you end up at a liberal arts college of which i'm a graduate and many other folks out there are and i'm a believer in them in so many ways you could end uptaking lastess on lady gaga and not learning a whole heck of a lot. >> there is that political correctness to mention that we talked about in the book. a lot of indoctrination goes on. we found a huge state university where in the political science department it was 53 selfidentified liberal democrats to zero republican conservatives. they weren't taking any chances at all. you've got that problem too. whether you look at it in terms much the political dimension, the return on investment opener the old fashioned argument, mart to, which you're making which i believed in and i still do, i was a philosophy major at a liberal arts college that the purpose of college is to save your soul, on any of those criteria colleges don't meet it. we try to individualize the advice, we talk about different situations, what you should look for and the questions you should ask. colleges need to be more honest

p what the charges are, what the ko*fpgs arethe cost is and what what the prospects are for a job. martha: you talked a little bit about the culture. what are your thoughts on that. >> i gave a talk in california. a guy said the first question, i sent my kids to college so it would expand their mind and develop good character. after six months i found out they experimented with drugs, got drunk almost every weekend and were shacking up. that may be an extreme view but there is a lot of that going on in college and universities. a person can do that i guess in a free country, kpoep for the drug part but you shouldn't have to pay 35, $40,000 to have those experiences. we know that the amount of studying that students do in college is much less than it used to be. here is one other thing. you don't have to say, well, you know go to college or i'll do nothing. you can join the military. you can go to a two-year college, if you go to the jefferson college of health science in virginia, martha and

you graduate after two years you will make more money than if you graduate from the university of virginia in charlottesville, that so-called prestigious university. martha: it's a really smart thing to write about, i'm glad you did and to think about. a lot of money is going into college education -gs. you're right for some people that two-year degree or a variation of that is exactly what they need. thank you for being with us. >> thank you very much. i'll be available for advice in two years. martha: if you have not heard of the hookup culture we'll ask that you be with us for thursday and friday. we'll tell you what passes for dating on college campuses and while bill bennett and others are very concerned as too what that means. we will look at what hookup culture really is and what can be done about it. bill: looking forward to it later in the week. fox news uncovered a disturbing trend involving our servicemen

and women. why more and more of them are being kicked out of the military. now why would that be?

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bill: fox news finding out that the number of people discharmed for military misconduct is on the rise, including wounded combat veterans leaving many access to no benefits. john roberts with more on this. >> reporter: we found out that why we can't say this is a nationwide pattern there are some trouble incidents at fort carson, colorado in which wounded what are years with serious health problems have been kicked out of the military for misconduct eliminating their access to critically needed healthcare. in the middle of our interview former army specialist cash

alvera has a seizure. of it means another trip to the er his prime source of medical care since he was drummed out of the military for going awol. he says his superiors were harassing him. >> they were telling me i was a malingerer, that my injuries really weren't there. >> he has a brain injury from afghanistan, a similar story to gerald general son who had half his face blowed off in iraq and volume even a teared for mountaintop duty in afghanistan where he was wounded again. general son was nearly kicked out when unit commanders claimed he was slacking. >> told me i wasn't worthy of wearing a uniform and never should have been allowed to wear the uniform, and i deserved everything that i got. >> an investigation by the colorado springs gazette found misconduct discharges in the army up more than 67% since 2009. many were soldiers suffering from traumatic brain injury and ptsd. in a lot of cases they lost

access to veteran's healthcare. >> basically the longer the war goes on the more people they kick out. that raised really troubling questions. >> questions like, did the military adequately investigate whether the misconduct was a symptom of a brain injury or ptsd or seufpl plea use any excuse to trim damaged what are yearwarriors from stressed combat units? >> you can't come away with any other feeling but that they are prague on the weakest in our military and taking away the most essential thing they need, which is their medical care. >> i asked the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general mart thin dempsey about the increase. he told me ten plus years of war has placed significant stress on many of our service members manifesting itself in their health and disminimum. we go to great lengths to try to rehabilitate those who didn't maintain required stan tardz prior to initiating separation. the series of the reports in the gazette, which you can see on

gazette.com brings into question, was everything done before they were kicked out? bill: we'll check that out. thank you. martha. martha: not out of the woods yet. where and when those living in america's heartland need to be on the look out for more of these. we'll s show you when we come back. pwhr-p company, we can play an important role. that includes continually providing more options. giving people easy ways to help make informed choices. and offering portion controlled versions of our most popular drinks. it also means working with our industry to voluntarily change what's offered in schools. but beating obesity will take continued action by all of us, based on one simple common sense fact: all calories count. and if you eat and drink more calories than you burn off,

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i spent the last eight years at the fox news channel. before i spent 10 years at cnn. that makes me the most fair and balanced person in this room. [laughter] that is cable news humor. martha: you got a big laugh. that was great. bill: wonderful, wonderful experience to get an invitation like that. to go back to your school and to see so many familiar faces and a wonderful college it is. so thank you, thank you. martha: great feedback. he did a fantastic job. congratulations. great pictures too. we shall she you back here tomorrow. bill: we'll be here. for now you get "happening now." we role on to studio j. jon: we begin with this fox news alert. hard ache in the nation's heartland as dozens of tornados make a terrifying run through at least five states and the threat far from over. more severe weather possible today in some of the very same areas. one person has died. at least 20 are hurt. we